Boss Mick McCarthy says Saturday’s visit to plummeting Huddersfield is a huge game as both sides battle to hold on to their Championship status. The Blues manager says it's most important not to be beaten by the Terriers, who have won just one of their last 16 league games.
"We’re playing our nearest and dearest rivals, one of them at least, and it’s a huge game,” McCarthy said.
"It’s important that we don’t get beaten, that’s for sure. We’re not going there to try and draw the game, but it wouldn’t be the worst thing if we came away with a draw.
"We’re going up there feeling positive and trying to win the game. I know they were beaten 6-1 by Nottingham Forest on Tuesday but is that a good thing or a bad thing?
"I’d be a looking for a real response if we’d just lost by six. When we did, we got it, so there’s no doubt it’s going to be a hard game.”
New Huddersfield manager Mark Robins - who only took over two games ago and has already seen his team concede 10 goals - has a tough job lifting his squad after that defeat.
McCarthy says the former Norwich striker has various options as he looks for his side to bounce back: "There’s no one way of doing that.
"He could approach it by setting up and being tight, which everyone wants to do anyway - you’ve got to be tight, you don’t want to give anything away.
"It could be that he sits back and lets us take the advantage early on by trying to sit back, trying to be tight. That might not be the right approach.
"My approach [in their situation] would be that we better get in their faces here and get on top of them. They lost in the week, they’re one of our rivals, don’t let them settle, don’t let them play.
"The pitch isn’t great, having watched the game against Wigan, and let’s make it a scrap. If these have travelled up from Ipswich you make it as uncomfortable as possible for them. That would be my approach, but I don’t know what he’ll do.”
Given the change of manager and poor run of results, the Blues boss says it’s difficult to second guess the approach the home side, who are now 21st, three places and one point behind Town, will take on Saturday.
"They’ve been spiralling downwards and that’s generally the reason they change the manager,” he said.
"I watched them [lose 4-1] against Wigan on Sunday in a cup tie and in the first half Wigan were clearly very dominant and Huddersfield didn’t have many chances.
"They changed it around, they brought James Vaughan and Lee Novak on and they made a big difference.
"They started on Tuesday when they played a diamond. Would you think that he’d see that it worked sufficiently to play it again? I don’t know.
"Mark Robins is generally a 4-3-3 man, so maybe we’ll be up against that. I don’t know. They’ve changed their manager, they’ve had a squad probably playing 4-4-2 under Simon Grayson most of the time. He’s got to ring the changes again having lost 6-1 in midweek.”
In terms of his own side, which travels north today, McCarthy says he’d prefer to have an established front two: "I’d like to have a settled pair. To be fair, Murph and DJ did really well but that was kiboshed because of circumstances.
"I actually thought Chops and Frank did well coming on as substitutes. Chops and Dave on Tuesday night never really got a kick.
"I don’t think it was down to them, it was down to Watford, they played very well and didn’t give them many opportunities.”
Whether to change things up front is probably one of McCarthy’s bigger decisions ahead of tomorrow’s game.
Daryl Murphy could come back into the side for Michael Chopra with his height a useful asset given that the Huddersfield pitch is hardly conducive to passing football. David McGoldrick seems likely to keep his place.
The midfield of skipper Carlos Edwards and Lee Martin either side of Luke Hyam and Guirane N’Daw will probably continue.
Right-back Richard Stearman will play despite dislocating his finger on Tuesday with Aaron Cresswell at left-back, Tommy Smith and Luke Chambers in the centre and Stephen Henderson in goal.
Anthony Wordsworth (cracked vertebrae) and Paul Taylor (foot) are Town's only injury absentees.
McCarthy feels the Championship is as close as ever this season with there being only a few points between sides eyeing the play-offs and those looking worriedly downwards.
"They’ll all be looking behind them, anybody that’s six points or fewer away from the relegation places,” he said. "They’ll be looking at that because if you start losing matches you do start spiralling down.”
Regarding Tuesday’s 2-0 loss to Watford, McCarthy wasn’t particularly disappointed with his team’s display: "We were all right against a really good side that actually stopped us playing. We had little spells in the game, just before half-time.
"I thought in the second half the goal came against the run of play, but as I said before they’re one of the best teams I’ve seen.”
For Huddersfield, who have re-signed Derby striker Theo Robinson on loan, centre-half Anthony Gerrard is set to return having been rested due to an Achilles’ injury. However, striker Jermaine Beckford (hamstring) and midfielders Danny Ward (metatarsal) and Keith Southern (Achilles’) are all sidelined.
Manager Robins, who is reported to also be hoping to loan Swansea's Alan Tate, who was interesting the Blues earlier in the season, doesn't expect it to be a pretty game: "I am expecting a scrap against Ipswich.
"Mick McCarthy has gone in there and had some decent results alongside some serious reverses, and they will come here knowing it’s a big game at an important stage of the season.
"But from my point of view the outcome will be determined by what we do with and without the football, not by what Ipswich do.
"We have to make sure we are not like a hot knife through butter when we haven’t got the ball, but be bright and lively going forward, which we are."
Historically, Town have won 19 games (including the only cup tie between the sides), the Terriers 11, with six ending in draws.
Despite their dismal overall form at present, one league win in their last 16 matches, prior to their loss to Wigan in the FA Cup, Huddersfield had drawn with promotion-pushers Leicester (also in the FA Cup) and Cardiff and beat Crystal Palace in their previous three games at the John Smith's Stadium.
In August at Portman Road, Luke Chambers scored his first Town goal, Michael Chopra netted his second of the season and Scott Loach saved a penalty as the sides drew 2-2.
The Terriers were in front at the break via Adam Clayton before Town levelled and then went in front. On-loan Canary James Vaughan equalised for the visitors then saw his spotkick stopped by Loach.
Town were last at what was then known as the McAlpine Stadium in November 1999 when the home side came from behind to win 3-1. Matt Holland put the Blues in front but goals from Jon Dyson, Chris Beech and Marcus Stewart, who would move to Town for £2.75 million later that season, saw the Terriers to the three points.
No current member of the Blues squad has represented the West Yorkshiremen, while Alan Lee and former Blues reserve keeper Nick Colgan are current Huddersfield players.
Saturday’s referee is Select Group official Mike Dean from the Wirral, who has shown 102 yellow cards and four red in 28 games so far this season. Dean’s most recent Town match was the 4-1 Carling Cup defeat to Wigan at Portman Road in September 2008.
Squad from: Henderson, Loach, Stearman, Hewitt, Cresswell, Mings, Kisnorbo, Chambers, Smith, N’Daw, Drury, Hyam, Martin, Edwards, Emmanuel-Thomas, Murphy, Chopra, Mclean, McGoldrick, Nouble.